


A Monster of Strange Motivations

by alatarmaia4



Series: Heroes Not Necessarily of Olympus [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Mysterious Helpers, Sort of a Deus Ex Machina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 17:57:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4272678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alatarmaia4/pseuds/alatarmaia4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to 'A Mortal of Strange Origins'. Piper, Leo, Jason, and Coach Hedge are more than surprised when they go to rescue Piper's dad and find that someone has beat them to the punch. But is this mysterious helper good or bad? And what exactly is he going to ask them for in exchange for his help?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Monster of Strange Motivations

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so here's part two! I finally got around to writing this out instead of letting it just rattle around in my brain. I'll probably get to the entirety of the Heroes of Olympus series at some point, but for now it's just the first book. This takes place at the end of The Lost Hero, so unless you've read that then I would hold off on this, otherwise it won't make much sense.

Piper was still freezing, and the fire didn't help, but maybe it was just an aftereffect of being temporarily turned into a gold statue.

Jason curled around her, trying to share warmth, was hardly a bad side effect, but Piper still felt horrible. Leo's dream and the ominous tone of Hephaestus's words, combined with the dreams she'd been having throughout the whole quest, made her feel queasy. And she couldn't stop shivering.

 _Useless,_ a little voice in the back of her head kept saying. Piper couldn't muster up the energy to disagree with it.

And she was still keeping things from her friends. The idea that she might have to betray her friends to save her dad lingered like a festering wound; sore, horrible, and not something she wanted to have to deal with. But she couldn't just will it away, however intangible it was; and, however she looked at it, she had to tell them before they reached Enceladus on his mountain.

She sat up, disturbing Jason's arms where they had rested casually around her. "We need to talk," she said, turning to half-face him.

Leo looked confused. Jason just looked worried. Coach Hedge actually put down his vegetarian burger thing that Leo had managed to whip up.

Piper's voice didn't shake when she explained what had been going on; her dreams, what Enceladus had said she had to do, how he'd told her to bring the two of them to him so he could kill them.

Their support astonished her. They should hate her; she'd been, in a way, planning to betray them this whole time. But all they did was offer sympathy and try to figure out a way around the limits that had been imposed on them.

The conversation only stopped when something howled in the distance.

There was silence in the cave for a moment, and then Leo broke it. "You guys heard that too, right?"

"Wolves," Piper said. The _last_ thing they needed right now. "They sound close."

Jason's coin glinted in the air as it flipped, landing in his hand and morphing into a sword as he stood. He moved protectively in front of Piper, who grimaced. She _hated_ being helpless.

The glint of red eyes just outside the cave made the idea of having someone to protect her a lot more tolerable.

The wolf slinked into the opening of the cage, huge and black. Ice was caked onto its fur, making it look white in places, and the red eyes were disturbingly intelligent. There were more behind the first, all huge, all with teeth that flashed like swords in the firelight.

At least half of them had bloody mouths, like they'd just hunted down and killed their last meal. The ones that didn't looked like they were about to have the four of them for dinner.

Jason snapped something in Latin that made them back up slightly, but it wasn't enough. They loitered outside the cave, twenty at least. Piper unsheathed her dagger. She didn't know what was keeping them back, but whatever it was, there was no way it was going to last long.

"Here's the plan," Coach Hedge said. "I'll kill them all while you guys run."

"No way," Leo replied immediately.

"No one's running," Jason said. "They respect a pack. We're staying together."

That was when the earth shook under their feet; minutely, like something gigantic was walking towards them.

They all looked at each other warily, but only for a moment - none of them were willing to take their eyes off the wolves for long. They were shifting around, moving agitatedly from one side of the cave mouth to the other in a manner that was almost like pacing. Whatever was coming, it wasn't another wolf.

When the paw knocked a few of them away, Piper almost didn't believe her eyes.

It was a wolf's paw - that much was obvious - but it was _huge,_ nearly as big as one of the black wolves and steely grey. The black wolves were in a panic, but none of them made for the cave - the paw of the giant wolf was blocking their way.

"What the hell," Leo said in a strangled voice. "Is that their buddy?"

"I don't think so." Jason was still holding his sword defensively, but he wasn't making any move to attack. "Whatever it is, there's no way it's going to be able to get in here."

There was a snarl, then a yelp, and something heavy hit the ground out of their view. That seemed to act as a sort of cue - the air was filled with growls as the black wolves, presumably, attacked the newcomer. The three demigods got only flashes of what was happening past the grey one.

"Begone!" Someone shouted in a raspy voice. "I am Lycaon, king of wolves! Obey me!"

The only answer was a guttural snarl, a wet tearing sound, and a pained cry that was cut abruptly short. Piper remembered the myth about Lycaon. It had said he'd been turned into an immortal wolf, the first werewolf. She didn't think much of his chances at living forever now.

Piper felt as tense as a coiled spring, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It couldn't be this easy; couldn't be as simple as another, bigger monster coming by and taking care of the problem for them. As the last high-pitched whine died out, leaving only silence in its wake, she waited for the grey one to try and get at them.

Huge, clawed paws padded past the cave entrance, long seconds lingering in between each glance they got at them. They were so far apart Piper didn't even want to try and guess how big the wolf itself was.

The thudding of its paws against the stone faded into the distance.

"Okay," Leo said, after a long pause had rested between them. "There's no way we got _that_ lucky."

* * *

The Hunters of Artemis showing up had, admittedly, been a surprise.

* * *

While Thalia and Jason reconnected, Piper and Coach Hedge were settled in one of the tents that the Hunters had managed to assemble in seconds. The white wolves were much friendlier than the others, if 'friendlier' meant 'only likely to attack on command'. The hot chocolate and warm silver parkas were a godsend after the cave; however hard Leo had tried, the fire hadn't done much to warm Piper up.

"We've been tracking Lycaon for weeks," Thalia said. "We turn up here and he - _and_ most of his wolves, it looks like - are dead. What did you guys _do_?"

"We didn't," Jason said. "Some other wolf showed up, must have routed them. We were stuck behind it in the cave."

"Another wolf?" Thalia's gaze sharpened. So did the attention of the other Hunter in the tent, who Piper recalled was named Phoebe. "Not one of Lycaon's, you mean?"

"No way." Leo shook his head. "This one wasn't black, and it was freaking _huge._ I think its paws were the same size as those black ones."

"We didn't see a trace of any other wolf on their trail," Phoebe muttered. "If it _was_ here, then it came out of nowhere."

"If?" Piper questioned. "It _was._ We didn't tear those wolves apart!" Many of them had been _literally_ torn to pieces, but luckily the only remains dissolved to dust and were easily dispersed by the competent Hunters.

"And they're not coming back," Thalia pointed out. "Lycaon isn't, either. Whatever killed them has enough power to make sure they _stay_ dead."

"A wolf has that much power?" Jason looked as skeptical as he sounded.

"Maybe it wasn't a wolf." Thalia replied. "Just something that looked like one."

"Like what, a god?" Piper scoffed. Thalia glanced at her, eyebrows rising ever so slightly. Her body posture was relaxed, but one hand was drumming at her thigh.

"You can't be serious," Leo said. "I thought all the gods were stuck on Olympus?"

"All the Greek ones are," Thalia replied mysteriously. "None of you were there a few months ago at camp, but..."

"But?" Jason pressed. Phoebe looked just as intrigued as the rest of them; obviously, Thalia hadn't shared this with any of the Hunters.

"I wasn't there, either, but Annabeth told me what happened last time the Hunters dropped by for a few days." Thalia said in a low voice. "What it all amounted to was that it was likely the Greek gods weren't the only ones around."

Mindblowing realizations aside..."Why would they help us, then?" Piper asked.

Thalia glanced down, blue eyes somehow darkening. "I don't know," she said. "And I don't know what they might ask in exchange."

* * *

The four of them, after the disaster with Aeoleus, got to the top of the mountain expecting a fight.

There was a depression the size of a football field, right at the top. Trees came right up to the edge of it, thickly forested land - beyond that, all that was left were stumps. The fate of the felled trees was obvious - in the center, there was a pile of charred logs, as if a huge fire had been roaring only seconds before.

Various machines that were obviously meant for construction littered the clearing, but they had all been knocked carelessly to the side. Some rested on their sides, and some had been pushed with suck force that they were half-buried in the ground or broken to pieces.

There was no sign of any giant at all.

To the left of the extinguished bonfire, an enormous wolf was curled.

It had to be the same one who had helped them on Pikes Peak, before the Hunters had found them. What were the chances of running into _two_ huge, steely-grey wolves within a day of each other?

"Where's my dad?" Piper whispered. She saw no trace of him - in her dreams, he had been tied to a post near the purple bonfire. There was a post, but there were only a few ripped and discarded ropes left haphazardly on the ground around it. "You don't think-"

"No," Jason reassured her, but he looked nervous. He was holding his coin so tightly that his knuckles were white.

The wolf shifted, paws shuffling in the dirt and scratching at it. Piper clapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from making any noise and alerting the wolf to their presence.

Tristan McLean was lying in a heap between the wolf's front paws. Piper couldn't tell from this distance if he was hurt, but he wasn't moving at all. Jason inhaled sharply, spotting what she had already seen, and Leo swore under his breath.

"Well," Hedge said in a low voice, "at least he hasn't been eaten yet-"

Jason hit Hedge sharply on the head, but Piper's insides had gone cold at the implication. They couldn't fight something that big. How was she going to save her dad now? Any plan they had come up with was no useless, without any sign of Enceladus actually being there.

"I know you're there." It took a moment for Piper to process that the wolf had actually _spoken._ Its yellow eyes were fixed on them, ears pricked. They must have been too loud; given away their position. "You can come out now."

Piper had no idea how such a human voice was being produced from an animalistic throat, but it was. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out from between the trees and walked towards the wolf.

Once they got closer, Piper noticed something she hadn't before - there was some sort of narrow ribbon wound around the wolf's legs, barely noticeable under its fur. She didn't dare comment on it, too scared of what the wolf might do if she did.

The wolf met her gaze, ignoring the three behind her. "Piper-" Jason hissed, but the wolf cut him off.

"Quiet." There was a growling edge to his voice. At least, Piper thought the wolf sounded like a he. "I know you have something to say, demigod. Say it." It was talking to her.

"I want my dad back." Piper's voice didn't waver, and she stared back as defiantly as she could. "If you're not going to give him to me, then we'll fight you."

The wolf snorted, sending a wash of hot breath over them. "I have no intention of fighting you." He reared up, standing on his forepaws and leaving Piper's dad without anything to stop her from grabbing him and running. "If you want him, take him. I hear you have a fight to get to."

Piper stared. "That's it?"

"I did not fight a giant so I could pick another one with you." The wolf's dry tone would have fit a person better than it did him.

Before Piper could lose her nerve, she dashed forward, seizing her dad's arm and hoisting him up. She backtracked as fast as possible, back towards the safety of her friends, but still the wolf didn't make any move to attack her.

"What are you doing this for?" Hedge demanded suspiciously. "Monsters don't just do people favors for nothing."

The wolf's hackles rose. "It would be wise," he said, the words more of a growl than actual words, "if you thought twice before insulting someone ten times your size, satyr. I have not done you a _favor._ I am merely repaying the debt my family owes you."

"Debt?" Jason echoed, sounding startled. "What have we done for you?"

The wolf leaned down, until Piper's view of him consisted mostly of a nose and lots of sharp teeth. His yellow eyes surveyed them, narrowed and not very friendly. "Your camp," he said. "I recognize that name. They did my family a favor. I do not enjoy being in anyone's debt."

It might have made more sense to do a favor for the people who had actually been involved, but Piper wasn't about to complain. "Thank you," she said, her voice sounding small to her own ears.

"Don't thank me." The wolf told her. "My interference ends here, and from what I've gathered you still have a battle to fight. You can get to that on your own."

Without another word, he turned and padded away, sliding into the trees and managing to vanish entirely despite his size.

"That," Leo said, "was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us."

Piper couldn't help but agree.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are seriously appreciated! Please leave one if you have any opinion on this story at all.


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